The present invention relates to a system displaying an operating state of a device, particularly, to a system displaying a remaining battery level that is provided at a light source apparatus to be connected with an endoscope.
A light source apparatus to be connected with an endoscope is mainly provided with an illuminating device and a battery. The illuminating device emits light with power supply from the battery. The emitted light is transmitted through an optical fiber provided in the endoscope to illuminate a region to be observed. As a remaining amount of the battery is reduced due to use of the light source apparatus, the light source apparatus may not cause the illuminating device to emit the light unless a sufficient voltage is supplied thereto. In such a case, the light source device cannot be used as an illuminator for the endoscope. When the observed region comes into an unilluminated state while using the endoscope, it cannot be helped to break the observation. In order to prevent such undesirable observation break and maintain efficient observation, it is required to monitor the remaining battery level in use of the light source apparatus.
To solve the above problem, there is a light source apparatus provided with an operating state display system for displaying the remaining battery level. The operating state display system, which mainly includes a light emitter and light guider, lets a user know an operating state of the light source apparatus with light emitted by the light emitter. The light emitter is incorporated inside a housing, and the light guider is arranged to penetrate the housing and face the light emitter. The light emitted by the light emitter is incident onto a specific surface of the light guider, and emitted from a surface disposed out of an outer surface of the housing. In general, the operating state display system is configured with a plurality of pairs of the light emitter and light guider.
Meanwhile, when a pair of a light emitter and a light guider is located adjacent to another pair of ones such that the light emitters and light guiders are arranged side by side, respectively, light emitted by a light emitter of one light emitter/guider pair may be incident to the adjacent light guider of the other pair such that the adjacent light guider appears to light. When the user misunderstands the adjacent light guider lights, the user who cannot grasp a proper remaining battery level of the light source apparatus misjudges time left during which the illuminating device can emit the light. It results in inefficient endoscope observation. So as to avoid such misjudgment, there have been known a structure in which light emitted by a light emitter of one light emitter/guider pair is completely blocked by a light shielding wall not to be incident to the adjacent light guider of the other pair (Japanese Utility Model Provisional Publication No. HEI 5-36483) and a structure in which light emitted by a light emitter of one light emitter/guider pair is transmitted through a slit not to be incident to the adjacent light guider of the other pair (Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI 11-153970).
However, the aforementioned light shielding wall, configured to keep the light emitted by the light emitter of one light emitter/guider pair from being incident to the adjacent light guider of the other pair, transmits a force generated by a vibration to a substrate and cabinet as components of the operating state display system. Therefore, it causes an undesirable vibration sound and damage of the substrate. In addition, due to a hole such as the slit provided in the substrate, mechanical strength of the substrate is reduced and a product life is shorten. Further, adding a further component or process to the substrate incurs a rise in a manufacturing cost.